


Prey Animals

by keycat



Category: Original Work, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Vampire Slayer, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Mild Sexual Content, Non-Graphic Violence, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Out of Character, Vampire Hunters, tbh i think they're more in character than stephenie meyer ever intended
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-04-05 18:15:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19045774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keycat/pseuds/keycat
Summary: Bella has a rude awakening when she fully realizes the extent of what Edward is asking of her in running from James. Refusing to abandon her father and let him face potentially deadly consequences, she turns her back on Edward and the rest of the vampire world, choosing instead to stand with Charlie against it.(This is a major divergence from canon, including names changed.)





	1. First Sight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ra3diation](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ra3diation/gifts).



> Those of you familiar with my work will recognize Gray, of course, who will be playing the role of Charlie in this story. Bella will be played by Davy, who belongs to red-eye-radio on tumblr. I don't want to consider this a Twilight/Fallout crossover, because while both of them are Fallout OCs, neither of them retain any of their Fallout qualities. 
> 
> (And also because oh my GOD writing Twilight fanfic is bad enough, I don't think I could ever admit to anyone out loud that I'm writing a Twilight/Fallout crossover fic without immediately handing over my lunch money in shame.)

Bubble tea. Ugh. Fucking disgusting. If I wanted to chew on the world's smallest testicles soaked in tea I'd call up my ex. But that's what the kids are drinking these days, and I gotta fit in.

_ Fuck. Starting to sound just like Gray. _

I almost let my eyes flick up to the man in the sharply pressed police uniform, talking evenly to a mall cop--almost. A few years ago, maybe I'd have slipped. But these bastards can and do see  _ everything _ . To show my hand right off the bat, to outright tell them he and I are affiliated? 

I horked down another of the slimy balls and instead let my gaze drift over to the girl sitting--no,  _ posing _ , because that's all these fuckers do, is pose and pretend like they're human--at the table directly across from me. She was gorgeous; of course she was. They all were. My skin prickled at the thought of being so close to her. Even now, after all I'd seen and done, the idea that a genuine flesh-and-blood vampire was sitting twenty or so feet from me was a little hard to handle.

I shivered as the girl took a long draught from a styrofoam cup in front of her. Ballsy, bringing a cup of blood in here like that.  _ Violation of the code, right there. Gray's gonna be thrilled.  _ I rolled my eyes and took another sip of tea.  _ Yeah, right. Dude's had such a stick up his ass lately.  _ So a couple bloodsuckers got the drop on us  _ one time _ , big deal, nobody died. Well. Nobody that didn’t already have it coming.

The vampire chick looked me directly in the eye and flashed me a tight smile as she took another sip. She flicked her tongue over her pink-stained teeth, and I shivered again. I’d always noticed the teeth first--weird, really. It wasn’t the disgustingly sweet stench that seemed to coat every fiber of their being, from their hair to their skin to even their fucking  _ breath, _ or the way they all seemed to be carved from some pale, glittering stone, or even how most of them, no matter how hard they tried, consistently slipped up in the most obvious ways; moving so fast they blurred, glittering faintly under their hijab or sunhat or whatever else they tried to cover up their skin with...no, for me, it was their teeth. The teeth of a predator. A predator that falsely believed that they were at the top of the food chain.

She stood and started towards me, and I paled. Without even looking at him, I could sense Gray’s anxiety spike.  _ Relax, old man, I can handle it. _ She was bold. Way too bold. No way she knew I could see right through her.

“This seat taken?” Her voice was heavy, deep, like an undead Rita Hayworth.  _ Bitch has been around for a while, then. _ I glanced down at her outfit, only just now noticing that it was much more conservative than mine. Like something my grandmother would put together. The sort of thing Gray would probably find attractive on a woman, if he were interested. The thought nearly made me gag, and I quickly shoved the idea of Gray ever being attracted to anyone or anything out of my mind before taking another gulp of bubble tea and shaking my head no at the vampire. 

“He your dad?” she asked, nodding at Gray, but refusing to break eye contact with me as she pinched the straw of her cup between her lips. I immediately couldn’t help but picture what it would be like to kiss her, to know the feeling of cold stone lips on mine again, to feel her tongue--

She grinned broadly, seemingly reading my thoughts, and my libido dried up instantly upon seeing her teeth.  _ Fuck, _ that shit was unnerving. “What?” Her voice was playful, toying with me. She had every intention of taking me home. 

_ I would, girl, I would,  _ I thought, and part of me hated how easily I gave in to these stupid vampires and their stupid lures. _ But you’ve got some ideas about eating me that don’t really jibe with the ones I had. _

“Yeah, he’s my dad,” I said, keeping my voice light and rolling my eyes again. “He’s such a dick, I asked him for a ride here because my car has a flat and he said he’d have a chance to work on some stupid investigation. That’s what he said, anyway. Like someone got murdered at the mall or something. Sure. Whatever, dad.” I sucked down the last of the tea, trying not to let my disgust show on my face. “Buy me another?” I waggled the cup of empty tea in front of the vampire, whose eyes widened slightly. She wasn’t used to her prey being so forward, but she quickly relaxed when she realized what an easy meal I was turning out to be. 

Her smile immediately changed to one that was more intimate. “Think we can ditch your dad while we’re at it?”

“I’ve got just the place.”

 

* * *

 

“Willis, please, we can’t just leave!” I cried, tears streaming down my face as we tore away from the baseball field. “Ezekiel--Arianna--your parents--”

Ezekiel’s jeep lurched over every pothole and stone in the dirt road, but Willis didn’t seem to notice or care, his eyes instead focused intently on the road ahead, one thought burning clearly in his thoughts. “You don’t understand, Davy,” he said through gritted teeth. “They can handle themselves. They’ll distract James until we get you a safe enough distance away. If he gets his hands on you--”

“What about  _ my  _ parents?! My dad? Gray doesn’t know James is coming--if James thinks for  _ one second  _ that Gray might know where I am--”

“I don’t. Care. About. Gray.” Willis’s voice was harsh, and my limbs suddenly felt numb.

“I--what?”

Willis seemed to notice that the note of hysteria had evaporated from my voice, and he glanced over at me hesitantly. “That’s...not what I meant. I--” He looked back out the windshield, trying to smooth his features and regain his composure, making me wonder if his rage had been a carefully constructed facade as well. “When I turn you, you’re going to outlive your father eventually. But before that, you’ll have to either tell him you’ve changed--and then kill him, to protect the secret, and us from the Volturi--or fake your own death. Something that you yourself have said would kill him. You are the most important thing in his life. Don’t you think he’d rather die to protect you than live to see you die so young in his own lifetime?”

My lip trembled. I didn’t want to admit that Willis was right. “He’ll...he’ll torture him first,” I said, my voice breaking. I didn’t want to picture the sorts of things that James would put Gray through, the sorts of things he would endure just to keep me alive, even if he  _ did  _ know where I’d gone.

“Not likely,” Willis said, but I could see through the lie. My stomach was sick. How often had he lied to me, and so easily? And how often had I been so lovestruck that I just didn’t see it? “James will realize fairly quickly that he doesn’t know anything. His death will be quick, painless--”

“Stop the car,” I snapped, the tears flowing freely again.

“Davy--”

“I said stop, or, I mean...just...take me to my dad’s, now, I need to warn him, at least,” I said, scrubbing my face with my sleeve to mop up most of the tears.

Willis bit his lip. “I don’t think that’s a safe--”

“You said your family is distracting him, are you saying they can’t even buy me enough time so that I can say goodbye to my fucking dad?!” The hysteria was back in my voice, and Willis set his mouth in a hard line, knowing I wasn’t going to budge on this, and while I may not be able to physically stop him, I could easily make things very, very difficult for him.

“Okay,” he said, but his driving continued in the same frantic manner, which again struck me as jarring. How had I never found it frightening that he was able to detach his actions from his emotions so effortlessly? It made me cross my arms over my chest in embarrassment and thank whatever god was up there that, for whatever reason, he couldn’t read my mind.

We remained quiet as Willis turned onto the main road and drove towards my father’s house. I stared out the window at the trees that went by in a blur, trying to decide what I was going to say to Gray, and how I was going to say it. Was it better to tell him the truth, to at least give him a fighting chance? The thought brought on fresh tears. No, there was no fighting chance, not against a vampire. Would he run, if I told him to? I thought bitterly of the badge I’d seen him polish on more than one occasion, the boots he’d shined, the uniform he’d ironed every morning. He wouldn’t run.

“Be quick, please,” Willis said as we pulled up the driveway to the little clapboard house. I pushed the lump in my throat down as we passed by the mailbox. My mother had painted the name WALSH on before we’d left, and despite the fact that the flowers and flowing cursive was firmly outside of Gray’s style, he’d kept it as a reminder of her--and then clumsily painted the name BENNETT under it when I’d come home. It looked awful, honestly. But if there was anything that better encapsulated who my dad was, I didn’t know it. I tried not to think of what would happen to it...after.

“Fine,” I muttered, hopping out of the jeep and letting the door slam behind me a little harder than I meant to. I smoothed out my shirt and ran a hand through my hair. At the very least, I didn’t want Gray’s last memory of me to be frightened, and very clearly on the run. Even though it couldn’t be further from the truth, I wanted him to think I was going somewhere I could be safe, always. That I’d be protected for not just the rest of my life, but for eternity, even though I couldn’t tell him that last part. It’s all he wanted for me, right?

“Davy, wait,” Willis said, rolling his window down and leaning out before I made it too far past the front end of the jeep. I turned on my heel, trying not to convey how bitter I felt. 

I sighed. “What?”

“Listen. As soon as you get back, we’re going to drive as far as we can. South. Towards Arizona. Back home. Ezekiel and Thomas are going to meet up with us, and when my father gives us the all clear, we’re going to turn you. It’s the only way to keep James from hunting you.” The excitement on his face was clear, but I wasn’t buying it.

“Or you could kill James, and cut him off at the pass.”

The startled look on Willis’s face was genuine. “I--I suppose we could. But--”

“Yeah, no, I get it. Whatever.”

“Davy, I thought you wanted this.”

I pursed my lips. “Can we talk about this later? I’ve got a lot on my plate right now. I really don’t think I can have this conversation right now.”

“Do you not want--”

“You know, I’d really like to not have to say goodbye to my dad knowing that he’s going to be violently murdered within the next few hours, alright? Like, on my list of things I want, that’s gonna be at the top, above being turned into a vampire, okay? Can you please just drop it for now and let me handle one thing at a time?”

Willis nodded curtly. “I’m sorry. Sometimes we have to make some hard decisions, but it’ll all pan out. I promise.”

“Yeah,” I said slowly. “Yeah. I guess we do.” I turned back and headed towards my father’s house, refusing to look at the little things that spoke of his influence. The flower garden that my mother had started and then died under Gray’s disinterest, though he’d feebly tried to bring it back to life after my mother died and I returned home. The porch that he’d built for her when she’d decided she wanted a place to grill and entertain, but now mostly was a place for him to drink beer and watch the trash cans to make sure nobody stole them. I steeled my nerve as I approached the door and tried to keep my demeanor light. 

“Davy?” I heard Gray’s voice echo through the house as I entered.

“Yeah, it’s me,” I said, letting the door swing shut behind me with a single backward glance at Willis, who tapped his wrist impatiently.

“I’m in the basement,” he responded, and his voice was muffled. Probably had a handful of nails between his teeth; he’d been working on new cabinets for the last few weeks, and I tried again not to think that they’d never get a chance to be used, or even finished.

I didn’t bother to kick off my shoes, instead, I hurried to the basement door and went down the steps a little faster than I meant to, stopping at the bottom of the stairs to keep myself from running to him and flinging my arms around him.

“What have I told you about wearing your sneakers in the house?” Gray said, spitting out the nails, standing up and gesturing angrily at my feet. “I--” He stopped abruptly, noticing my tear-streaked face. His expression instantly changed to wide-eyed shock mixed with genuine fury. “What happened?”

Before I could stop myself, I made my way across the floor, stepping over piles of sawdust and plywood scraps, and threw my arms around Gray’s waist, burying my face into his shoulder and burst into loud, ugly sobs.

“Davy--uh--” I could feel him grow tense under me, but he let his hammer drop to the floor before awkwardly putting an arm around my shoulders and timidly putting his opposite hand on the top of my head. “Can you--just take off your shoes and tell me what happened?” His voice had a hard edge to it that I knew immediately meant he suspected Willis. My gut reaction growled back, but I had to suppress it when I remembered that, oh, right, it was Willis, wasn’t it?

“I...can’t tell you,” I said through my hiccupping sobs.

He grunted, but waited for me to decide what I could and couldn’t tell him.

“It’s Willis,” I finally said, and I felt Gray’s hold tighten.

“What’s he done?” he growled.

“I can’t tell you,” I said again.

Gray’s exasperation was practically tangible.

“I want to tell you. I really do. But I don’t know how dangerous it is to tell you the truth, or if I should just...God, I just don’t fuckin’ know, and I don’t have any time, I just--”

“Davy. Davy. Slow down.” Gray peeled me away from him, and stepped back. “Whatever it is…” He seemed to be fighting for the right words, trying to organize his thoughts through his rage. “You can tell me. I can handle it.”

“I don’t know if you can.” My voice was thin, and Gray’s eyes flicked to my midsection. The absolute murderous rage written clearly on his face, and the realization he’d obviously come to, coupled with the even more absurd and infinitely more deadly reality, made me burst out in near-deranged laughter.

Gray was taken aback, his brows furrowed in confusion. “Are you--”

“No, I’m not pregnant.”

Gray’s stance loosened somewhat; the conversation was venturing back into territory he was more equipped to handle. “Did he--” He paused, mentally tabulating all of the reasons his teenage daughter might come home crying, ranking them by order of what would pose him the most danger and clearly coming up with nothing. “Did he threaten you? His brother, the big one--”

“He’s a vampire,” I said flatly. There it was, the truth, plain and simple. If Willis wasn’t going to be honest with me, why should I continue to lie for him, when Willis even said it himself? If given the options, with all the cards laid out, Gray would take the one that was best for me. Even if it meant death.

Gray frowned. “You mean he stole from you?”

_ Okay, maybe that’s why I didn’t tell him the truth. _ “No, I mean…” I shook my head like a horse trying to clear flies, trying to think of the best way to word it without sounding insane. “He’s actually a vampire. The kind that drinks blood and everything.”

Gray’s upper lip curled in disgust. “I saw a story about that on the news a few weeks ago, but they usually wear all black and paint their nails--”

I ground my knuckles into my forehead and sighed. “No, I mean the  _ real  _ kind. The sleeping in coffins and not going out in the sun kind.”

“But he--”

“Yes, I know he goes out in the sun, I guess the real ones are a little different. But please tell me you believe me.”

The look on Gray’s face told me that he probably did  _ not  _ believe me.

“He’s outside now waiting for me. I...I have to go with him. It’s the only way to keep both of us safe. I think if I go with him, James won’t--”

“Who’s James?” Gray visibly perked up at the mention of an outside threat, something he could fight back against. Someone he clearly prayed was of legal ass-kicking age.

“Another vampire.”

“Right.”

“Please believe me on this. I know it sounds insane, but your options here are that I’m pranking you and I get to go ‘oh I pranked you ha ha what an idiot you really thought vampires were real’ for a few weeks, or I’m telling the truth and there are actual vampires out there who actually want to kill us both. I’m begging you to weigh your options and take the risk of being made fun of for a few weeks. Please, dad.” I crossed my arms over my chest again; I hadn’t called him dad since we left, and I hoped it conveyed just how serious I was. Instead it mostly seemed to just embarrass him.

“Willis is waiting for me, I have to go--”

“Don’t go,” Gray said suddenly when I turned to leave.

I looked back up the stairs, half expecting to see Willis waiting there, radiating anger that I’d dared keep him waiting. “I have to, you don’t understand--”

“I can keep you safe, Davy. I promise.”

“Not from them. Nobody can. Only another vampire can.”

Gray shifted his weight from one foot to another while he contemplated. “Who’s James?” he asked again.

“We were playing baseball--”

“In a thunderstorm?!” 

Gray was definitely not focusing on the right aspects of this problem.

“They like the thunder because they hit the ball really hard and it’s loud as shit, I--you’re not really focusing on the right problem here,” I said.

“Sounds like a real fuckin’ stand-up guy, taking his…human girlfriend,” he eyed me up and down, still unsure he wanted to buy into the vampire story. “...To play baseball in an open field during a thunderstorm,” he grumbled, but nodded for me to continue.

“Some other vampires showed up, there was three, I think, I mean, I only saw three but there might have been more, Willis didn’t say he heard any more but they could have been hiding their thoughts--”

“They  _ what, _ ” Gray said, crossing his arms in disbelief. The story might have been getting a little too hard to believe at this point, probably should have kept out the mind-reading thing, but by now it was too late.

I gestured wildly at the air, trying to make sense of something even I was still finding hard to grasp. “Willis can read minds.”

“Really.” I had to hand it to Gray, he was trying his best, but that bastard Willis had to go and be able to read minds and make an already absolutely bugfuck insane story even more insane.

“He can’t read mine. Or yours. Well, he can read yours a little bit, but all he hears is just...static, mostly.” I bit my lip, trying to stifle laughter. “He thought this whole time you were just mentally retarded.”

For some reason Gray didn’t find that funny.

“I really have no idea why. Actually, that’s why he started talking to me in the first place, because he couldn’t read my mind, he said he was...intrigued.”

Gray was shaking his head at me, disappointment rolling off him in near-tangible waves, but I pressed on.

“Well, that and he wanted to eat me.”

Gray nearly choked. “He  _ what?! _ ”

The words were coming way too easily at this point, and I completely blew past Gray’s outrage as I continued. “I guess for vampires, everyone smells a little differently, and for some of them, certain people smell really really good. Like, so good that most of them just lose control and eat them right on the spot as soon as they catch the scent.”

Gray was having a hard time keeping it together at this point; he was shaking from the effort it took not to charge out of the house and hunt down Willis himself but, I had to give him props, he once again nodded for me to continue. Maybe he just wanted all the facts before he went on a rampage.

“I guess Willis and this guy James--the guy from the baseball field--I smell the same to both of them, because James went crazy, he just charged right at me and Ezekiel had to stop him, and Willis grabbed me and ran, and…” I took a deep breath. “Right now, the plan was for me to come in and tell you I was leaving. I wasn’t supposed to tell you any specifics, just to tell you that I was leaving. We’re going south to try and lose James for long enough, we only need three days and when they’re sure we’ve got it, they’re gonna turn me and then I’ll be safe from James, and then I can come back, and I can turn you,” I said as the realization dawned on me. “We’d both be safe from James, and any other vampire, and--”

Gray shook his head simply, and my stomach dropped when he said, simply, “no.”

“I know it’s short term, and it’s a whole lifestyle change, and you’d have to--”

“I said, no, Davy.”

I looked around wildly, as if James were going to burst through the walls at any second. “Are you listening to me? They’re  _ unstoppable.  _ They can run, like, a hundred and fifty miles per fuckin’ hour. Bullets don’t stop them, they’re harder than diamond. They’re stronger than Superman, they can go out in the sun, all that happens is that they just fuckin’ sparkle. They don’t even  _ sleep _ . The  _ only way  _ to stop them is to set them on fire, and good luck catching them. They--”

“Fire?” Gray’s eyes lit up for the first time in...well, to be quite honest, the first I’d ever seen.

“Yeah, but like I said, good luck catching them, did you not hear the hundred and fifty miles per hour part?”

Gray looked down at his cabinets, running his hand over the unfinished wood almost longingly. “Alright. Go with Willis. Tell him you want to go to the Marriott in Los Angeles, you remember the one? The one at the airport?”

I wrinkled my brow, confused, but nodded anyway. “Sure. The one with the big doors.”

“That’s the one. Tell him that’s where you want him to turn you. Tell him you want the suite, he can afford the suite, right?”

I rolled my eyes. “Ugh, yeah. He can afford anything he wants.”

“Might as well get something nice out of him, then, yeah?” Gray winked, and I again looked around, bewildered. Who the hell was this guy? I certainly had never met him. “I’ll meet you there in three days. Do  _ not  _ let him turn you, and do  _ not  _ tell him I’m coming. Can you handle that?”

“I think I can handle it,” I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm. 

“Great.” He stepped forward, embracing me in an almost-genuine hug. “I’ll see you in three days.”

 

* * *

 

Three days later I was sitting in the lobby of the Marriott LAX, reading an article about a mysterious explosion in the small town of Forks, Washington--tragically killing both the chief of police and his daughter--when LAPD’s finest arrested me in broad daylight, leaving Willis to skulk in the shadows and only watch as I was led away.

When they deposited me in the back of the cruiser, Gray was waiting with what was probably the closest I’d ever seen to a genuine smile on his face.

“Got you too, huh?” I said, resting my cuffed hands in the divet in the back of the seat, looking pointedly at his own cuffed wrists.

“Had to make it look convincing,” he said, but the officer in the front seat scoffed.

“Don’t let him lie to you, he likes it. You know, usually when I get officers from out of state calling in favors of this nature, they don’t involve their daughters,” the officer said, eyeing Gray in the rearview mirror, and I gagged.

“Great, there’s a mental image I’ll never get out of my head,” I growled.

Now, here I was, standing in front Gray’s stolen cruiser, taking a picture of the Whore of the Undead as she slid the front of her panties down just enough that she could press her bare pussy against the hood of the car, turning back to me and sticking her tongue between her first two fingers.

_ That can’t possibly be sanitary,  _ I thought, snapping another picture.

“Your dad’s a real fuckin’ square, huh? What d’you think he’d think if he saw this?” the vampire asked, bracing both hands against the hood and thrusting against it, cackling. How was it possible that she thought I couldn’t hear her goddamn iron cooch squealing against the metal of the car? I shoved the thought out of my mind and, against my every instinct, stepped closer to her, wrapping my hands around her midsection and slipping a finger down her front, trying hard not to recoil against every fiber of my being screaming  _ venom! It’s venom you’re touching! Get your hand out of there! _

She gasped, and turned to look at me, surprised, but intrigued. “You have the keys?” Her voice was husky, and I wondered briefly if my enthusiasm was as transparent as her’s.

“Yeah, give me a second,” I said, my hand flying to my pocket and fumbling with the keys, shaking slightly as I pulled them out. They dropped to the ground, and in a blur, she had them in her hand.

I paused, halfway to the ground, before looking up at her. “You’re fast,” I said, my mouth dry.

“You scared?”

I shook my head once.

“Get in, then,” she crooned, unlocking the car and moving to the back door faster than any human could possibly move. “Get in here,” she said, reaching around behind her to open the door, still maintaining eye contact with me. “And bring that tight ass with you.” She sat on the edge of the bench and slid back, all the way back, against the opposite door, spreading her legs wide, stroking herself through her clothes, and for one brief moment, I considered following her.  _ God, she’s hot. Worth it…? _

I laughed once to myself.  _ Nope. _

Her face dropped, and for all her vampire speed, she still wasn’t fast enough to put two and two together until after I’d slammed the door shut.

“Doesn’t open from the inside,” I said lightly, pulling a packet of cigarettes and my cell phone out of my back pocket. I struck a match on the outside of the box, lighting a cigarette and tossing the match before flipping open my phone. “Yeah, it’s a flip phone,” I said around my cigarette, watching the vampire stare daggers at me like a cat in a cage. “It’s got push-to-talk, though, fuckin’ swanky, right?”

She rolled her eyes. “So what do you think you’re going to prove, locking me in here? You have no idea who you’re messing with.”

“On the contrary,” I said, taking a drag before tossing the cigarette aside. “I’m afraid  _ you _ don’t know who  _ you’re _ messing with.” I pressed the button. “Officer Walsh, we’re clear.”

Maybe I’d stood too close. But the split-second look of pure, unadulterated shock on this bitch’s face when she realized she’d been had, and not just had, but  _ fuckin’ annihilated, _ before the explosion devoured her, was more than worth the burns.


	2. Burn Notice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna try and stick to a regular update schedule, once a week, every Saturday is the goal. So far I have a few more chapters backlogged and I'm editing them as I go along so we'll see how that pans out. I just hope I don't change my mind about how things should go later and have to come back and edit chapters to avoid having to retcon lol

Gray was silent as he changed my bandages, listening intently to the police scanner set up by the window and the news playing between two local channels on his laptop balanced carefully on the bathroom counter. A third played from the television, but he’d muted it after they started on some story about a dog that had been trained to steal snacks from a 7-11.

“Looks like we got off scot-free again,” I mumbled, trying to lighten the mood when one of the stories on the laptop sounded like it was switching gears to more light-hearted topics. 

Gray was unmoved; instead, his movements were stiff as he continued his work. He took a cucumber from the hotel ice bucket and broke chunks off it, tossing them in a bowl of aloe chunks with probably more force than was necessary. 

“She was dangerous, okay? I know you’re mad, but--”

“You’re right. And you went after her  _ alone. _ We had a  _ plan.” _

I threw up my hands, ignoring the sting of the burns from moving too sharply while Gray ground the cucumber and aloe chunks into mush. “I got her, didn’t I? I mean, fuck, it’s like you hate the idea of me being able to take care of myself without you.”

“I hate the idea of you being  _ fucking reckless _ . These are dangerous people we’re up against and you don’t even seem to give a shit. They’re fast, they’re deadly, they’re--”

“Yeah, fine, I know! Who’s the one who told you any of this stuff, anyway? Who learned all of their strengths and weaknesses and even dated one before you even came into the mix? Oh, yeah, that’s right, it was me,” I sneered.

Gray all but slammed the bowl back down on the counter. “Yeah, thanks, Davy, for bringing this down on both of us.” He gestured around the room cramped room, packed with only the bare essentials and his radio equipment, and for a moment, I felt sick. My thoughts went back to the cabinets he’d been building: all that work, wasted, blown away in a gas leak explosion. And all for what? Because I’d been absolutely, sickeningly, obsessed with Willis, based entirely on my own inability to see his lures for what they really were. This wasn’t the retirement Gray wanted, and certainly not the one he deserved. Not that he’d probably never have retired, which made my stomach drop even further. I hadn’t missed the fact that he still kept his badge displayed prominently on the nightstand of every hotel we’d holed ourselves up in.

“I’m, uh…” I swallowed the rising lump in my throat. “I think I’m gonna go for a walk.”

Gray wordlessly held a hand out, and I sheepishly put my hand in his. He used his fingers to scoop out a small amount of the mush he'd made, spreading it over the largest of the burns on my left forearm a little too roughly, but I said nothing. When he was done, he pointed at the roll of gauze on the counter before getting up and taking his laptop to his bunk.

“Thanks,” I said quietly, unrolling a length of gauze, tearing it off with my teeth, and slipping out the door, grabbing the ice bucket as I went. 

The night was sticky and humid as I stepped out into the warm Texas air, breathing it deep and turning the ice bucket over into the bushes. Marcia--that had been the vampire bitch’s name, Marcia--had left us a sizeable bank account, but for some reason Gray had still decided we needed to stay in a literal cum dumpster. Meaning I had to actually go outside to get ice.

As soon as I'd finished tying the bandage around my arm, I brushed my fingertips over the Beretta on my hip to make sure it was still there. Satisfied, I hugged the ice bucket to my waist and set out for the ice machine. The steady hum of the old lightbulbs situated outside each room was the only sound breaking the silence; that, and my feet scuffing quietly over the concrete as I walked. It was eerie, seeing Dallas in the distance, but hearing...nothing. Texas was nothing like Los Angeles had been.  _ But,  _ I thought, my mind going to the gun tucked into my waistband, displayed prominently to anyone who thought I’d be an easy target.  _ It definitely has its perks.  _

The ice machine had been tagged more than a few times, and I wondered how many times vagrants had gone and pissed in it, just to watch the ice melt.  _ Fucking nasty-ass.  _ I shovelled a fair amount into the bucket, set it down on the ground, and then leaned back against the machine to light up. Gray had put a stop to the whole weed thing as soon as he found out, and I still resented him for it. Not that I ever had any intention of listening to him for a second, but it wasn’t exactly easy to find a dealer when we were moving every other month. So I had to stick to nicotine. Which sucked  _ ass. _

“God, I fuckin’ hate vampires,” I muttered, tilting my face towards the sky, closing my eyes, and exhaling smoke.

I hadn’t heard anyone come up to the machine. Hadn’t sensed anyone near me. And yet, a voice spoke from out of the darkness,  _ dangerously  _ close: “you know, I never understood why people go absolutely nuts for ice when they’re staying at a hotel.”

My head snapped forward, my cigarette dropping from my mouth, my hand already on the Beretta.

“Relax. I’m not the kind of guy you need to use a gun on.”

I narrowed my eyes at the newcomer. Something in his voice made me uneasy, and I was trying to decide if it was just the paranoia that Gray had drilled into me after two years on a steady diet of ‘ _ trust no one’ _ , or if he really was as skeevy as his voice implied.

“Go ahead and try, though. I’ve always wanted to know what happens.” He leaned closer, and I could see now in the better light that he was built like a tank--bigger than Gray and at least an inch taller. But his face, something buried deep in my memory was struggling to the surface as I studied the soft, almost boyish features that rounded out the sharp planes of his face…

I snatched the road flare strapped to the outside of my boot and held it threateningly out in front of me. “Ezekiel,” I breathed.

“Cute,” he said, tapping his finger on the top of the road flare. “Couldn’t find a crucifix?”

“You wouldn’t be the first bloodsucker I’ve killed with one,” I said, even though that was only half-true.

Ezekiel frowned, but his eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Does that really work?”

I sneered and squared my stance. “You want to find out?” I moved my free hand slowly to the phone in my pocket. I had to warn Gray, somehow, without startling Ezekiel.

“Not really.” He pointed to the phone in my pocket. “I’d really rather you didn’t call your dad, either. Last time that happened, you brought a whole lot of shit down on me and my family.”

“Tragic,” I said, but the ice in my veins made its way into my voice.

Ezekiel let out a half-hearted chuckle, but there was no humor behind it. “They killed both my parents, you know. The Volturi. Made the five of us watch.”

I couldn’t fight the gut-wrenching sorrow that gripped me as I took in his words. The hand holding the road flare sagged slightly, and I straightened my posture a bit. “Zeke, I...I’m sorry to hear that. I really am.” I almost wasn’t sure where the words were coming from. On the one hand, I’d always felt a kinship with Ezekiel that I couldn’t explain, While I’d been--I was nearly physically repulsed at the memory-- _ deeply in love  _ with Willis, Ezekiel was like the brother I’d never had. None of the intensity, the weird habits, the fucking _ crawling into my bedroom while I slept _ ...just a dickhead older brother who gave me noogies. But on the other hand, and I couldn’t stress this enough, Ezekiel was a vampire, and had killed at least one person that I knew of. It wasn’t the sort of thing I was about to let slide.

Ezekiel’s next words, however, nearly bowled me over. “Eh…” he said, turning his gaze out over Dallas. “Don’t be. They deserved it.”

The road flare slipped from my grip, and I didn’t even see Ezekiel move--one second it was dropping out of my hand, the next it was in his, holding it back out to me. I took it, resting my opposite hand on the cap and narrowing my eyes slightly. “You can drop the act. I’m not an idiot, Zeke. You get me to feel bad for you, and then you eat me, and then my dad.”

“Gave you your road flare back,” Ezekiel said, raising his eyebrows at me and making finger guns at the flare. “Hm? Haven’t eaten you yet. Gotta count for something, right?”

Against my better instinct, I tucked the road flare back in the holster wrapped around my boot. “What are you here for?”

He shrugged.

“Just catching up, then?” I made a move to bend and pick up the ice bucket, but Ezekiel again had it in his hands before I’d even realized he had moved. “And quit doing that. It freaks me out.”

“I want to help you.”

I dropped the ice bucket-- _ I have _ got _ to stop dropping shit-- _ and Ezekiel caught it yet again.

“Sorry,” he said, handing it to me almost sheepishly. “Force of habit.”

I pursed my lips and took it. “Come on. Are you serious?”

He nodded without a word.

“What, just hoping if you stick around with us that we won’t come for you eventually? I know you’ve heard what we’ve been up to, otherwise you wouldn’t have put the effort into tracking me down.” I started back towards our room. “You’d better clear out of here before Gray finds you, you know. He’s not nearly as forgiving as I am.”

“I think I can handle an old man and his daughter armed with a road flare,” he said, flashing me a grin, and while I was mentally preparing myself to be disgusted by his pink teeth, I stopped in my tracks, surprised to see that they were...well, mostly normal. “What?” He said, his smile instantly dropping as he examined my face. “Oh, the teeth thing, right? Yeah, it’s nasty, isn’t it? Don’t think me a prude, but I always thought the whole business with the drinking blood thing was just…” He shuddered.

“I probably wouldn’t have said ‘prude’. Pussy, maybe.”

Ezekiel’s grin returned. “Been doing it for years but it still freaks me out that it’s all I want and that I actually  _ enjoy  _ it. You know I tried eating raw meat, just to get around the drinking blood thing? Didn’t work. Sucked. Made me sick as shit. Nah, I drink it, but I hunt the old fashioned way, you know, with a compound bow and all that. Bring it home, drain it, drink the blood from a cup and then bring the meat to market, food pantries, that sort of thing.” He pointed to his jeep, parked on the opposite side of the parking lot, now equipped with a very visible rack for various bows and hunting gear. I slapped my forehead. How had I not seen it instantly and recognized it? Gray was gonna be  _ pissed  _ when he found out a vampire had gotten the drop on me  _ again. _

“Food pantries?” I said, cocking an eyebrow and tilting my head to one side. “Really, Zeke?  _ Food pantries _ ? Come on. You really gonna go and make me feel like a giant ass for setting you on fire and killing you, huh? What, do you knit scarves for little old ladies in the winter, too?”

“I’ll learn if you promise you’ll put that road flare in my ass,” he said, smirking, and I groaned and headed back for my room.

“Now I’m  _ definitely  _ telling Gray.”

“Oh, come on, who’s the prude now?” He laughed, trotting after me and grabbing my arm, turning me around. “Seriously, though, Davy,” he said, all humor gone from his face, and I was eerily reminded of how quickly Willis could shift from one emotion to another. “It’s not so much that I want to help you. It’s that I want your help.”

I pulled away. “With what?”

Ezekiel looked like he was toying with his decision. “It’s my siblings. It’s gotten bad since the Volturi came.”

“That’s really not a problem I can help you with.”

“It’s not like that.” Ezekiel’s mouth twisted down into a frown. “When was the last time you talked to Willis?”

I shook my head. “We don’t talk anymore.”

“I--what?” He was genuinely confused now. “He said he’s been in touch with you ever since the thing at the Marriott. That’s how I knew where you were. He said you were in Dallas, so I tracked his scent to this hotel and found yours too, so I just...”

My blood went cold. “He--” I glanced around, half expecting to see him peering around the corner or hiding in a bush. “He knew I was  _ here _ ? Not just in Dallas, but  _ here _ ?”

“I take it there was a falling out?”

“I mean, I guess I never officially broke it off, but I kinda figured that when I never made an effort to get in touch with him and then stayed with my dad to start killing vampires full-time, that he would sort of, you know. Get the hint.” My hands were shaking, and I clumsily pulled the cigarettes back out of my pocket. I handed the lighter to Ezekiel, who obliged by lighting it while I nervously took a long drag. “What--oh, shit--what has he said to you?”

“Right after you got arrested he was kinda confused about what had happened. He heard about your dad, that the news was saying he’d died in the explosion but that you had, too, so obviously he figured that your dad was actually alive, and probably had something to do with the arrest, that it was probably all staged. He wasn’t sure why you hadn’t gotten in touch with him and was getting kinda antsy, and it was around this point that Thomas and I started telling him that it looked like it had been made pretty clear you had picked your dad over him and had gone into hiding from the vampire world. 

“But then a few weeks later, his whole mood changed and he was all sunshine and daisies, said that you’d gotten in touch with him and that you were spending time in Los Angeles because your dad had forced you to and that as far as anyone in Forks knew, you were both dead, so for now you guys were spending time in the sun, away from the vampire world.” 

"Yeah, trust me, Los Angeles is pretty smack-dab right-in-the-fucking-middle of the vampire world." I rolled up the leg of my shorts to show off a burn that spanned nearly my entire left leg. "Not a birthmark, buddy."

Ezekiel put his hands in his pockets and shrugged. “Either way, he started spending a lot of time going back and forth between Forks and LA. Gave us all these updates on you, kept saying you were good, that you two had had a great time together. Then he said out of nowhere that you were moving to Dallas, and--”

“Wait, we were in LA for two years. We’ve only been in Dallas for six months. When did he tell you we were going to Dallas?”

Ezekiel looked down at the ground. “Uh…”

“Six months ago?”

“Give or take, yeah.” He glanced around. “Jesus, Davy, I’m sorry, man, I didn’t know. I thought everything was cool between you two. I didn’t realize…”

I rocked back on my heels. “Are you still in touch with him?”

“Not really, no. We don’t text so much. Vampires don’t really do the cell phone thing, you know. Makes it harder to stay off the grid, and you never really know who’s listening, even when they’re just in your pocket. We only ever really talked when I saw him in person when he came back to Forks.”

I chewed on the inside of my lip, rolling my cigarette between my fingers idly. “I have to tell Gray.”

“And how are you gonna tell him you got this information?” Ezekiel looked between me and his jeep. “I was just dicking around when I said I could take him, I’m fully aware of how lethal he is. I’ve seen the work you two have done. I’m not so arrogant as to think he won’t find a way to kill me.”

“He’s gonna want to kill you, yeah.” I drummed my fingers against my thigh, contemplating. “I should probably tell him about Willis first.” I looked down at my watch. “To be honest, I should probably get back, he’s probably gonna be flipping out.” I started walking away, but Ezekiel caught my arm again.

“What about me? Davy, I need help, I haven’t even--”

I yanked myself free. “I really need to go, or Gray’s gonna come down here and then you’ll be dead and won’t need to even worry about it. I’ll be in touch, alright? And hide your fuckin’ jeep, he’s gonna recognize it. Just...stick around here for a bit.”

Ezekiel fumed, but stepped back, crossing his arms in irritation. “Fine. When should I expect to see you again?”

I gestured wildly at the air. “I don’t know. Tomorrow. But it’ll have to be early, Gray’s gonna want to turn tail and run as soon as he finds out that you  _ and  _ Willis know where we are, and I have no idea where we’ll be going. You don’t sleep, just hang out, okay?”

“I don’t sleep, but I get bored,” he muttered, but turned and went back to his jeep. “Fine, whatever. I’m going downtown. Gonna find a mechanical bull to ride or something.”

“Gonna impress some Texan women?”

“If that’s what they like,” he said without turning around. His voice was heavy with annoyance, but he’d be back. If he was coming to two humans for help, even two humans with as high a vampire body count as we had between us, he was clearly out of options. I watched him skulk off, only hurrying back to my room when the brake lights of his jeep glowed brightly against the dimly lit parking lot.

Gray’s head snapped up as soon as I entered. “Where have you been?”

“Just got talking to someone, relax.” I set the bucket of ice down on the counter.

The look on Gray’s face made it pretty apparent that he didn’t believe me for a second. Maybe my own face gave me away, I couldn’t tell. 

“It’s Willis,” I said, and his posture tensed. 

“Here?” he hissed, already standing up and moving for the door, but I threw out both hands to stop him. He pushed past me easily, going to the door, a pair of road flares already in one hand. He threw his weight against the door as he peered through the peephole, gesturing to me to go get one of the guns.

“Oh my God, can you chill out for two seconds?” I snapped. “You really think I’d just come walking back here all ‘la di da, hey, by the way, Willis is standing right outside’?”

Gray turned to me, his teeth bared. “Where is he, then?”

I put my hands on my hips. “Okay, you need to seriously calm down with the bloodlust thing. It’s definitely not a good look for you.”

“Not in the mood, Davy.”

“I really think we need to talk. He’s nowhere near here, and there’s more important things I need to tell you about.” I went back to my bunk, sitting petulantly on the edge of the bed, and giving him a pointed, expectant look.

Gray’s gaze moved hesitantly from the peephole back to me, then back to the peephole, but, grudgingly, he came back inside, sitting on the edge of his bunk and waiting for me to speak.

“You remember Willis’s siblings?”

“No.”

I scowled. “Yes you do.”

“I remember he had a couple, but I don’t remember their names.”

“You remember the big one? Ezekiel?”

“I remember the big one, but not his name.”

“It’s Zeke. Ezekiel.”

“I don’t really care about his name.” His voice turned hard. “Why does it matter?”

“He was here.”

“You didn’t kill him.” Gray was struggling not to lose his temper.

“It’s a good thing I didn’t, because he’s the one who told me Willis has apparently been following us since we left Forks. He knew we were in Los Angeles the whole time. Kept going back and forth between LA and Forks, telling his family that we were having a great time, and he knew the minute we left for Texas that we were going. Now he’s here, in Dallas.” I leaned back, bracing myself against the bunk. “Besides, aren’t  _ you  _ the one who was pissed when I  _ did  _ kill a vampire on my own? What do you want from me? I’m not a mind reader.”

“So him, and his brother, are here?” Gray stood up, ignoring me entirely. “Then we’re leaving. Now. Get the radio equipment in the truck, I’ll pack the guns.”

“Wait, what? Now?” That wasn’t part of the plan. I thought I’d have at least a few hours. Ezekiel was gonna think I was ditching him. 

_ God forbid I hurt a vampire’s feelings. _

I rose to my feet; maybe ditching Ezekiel was in my best interest. I didn’t want to start lying to Gray again, especially not about vampires. That’s how we got in this mess in the first place, who knew how much worse things could get if I went back on all that bullshit? Besides, there would be no swaying Gray once he’d decided to pack up shop and move, I had known that already and had made my peace with it before walking in the door. I picked up the hardtop Pelican case from the end of his bed and flung it onto the foot of mine, popping it open and checking that it was empty. “Where?”

“Don’t know yet. Corpus, maybe. Austin, I don’t know. I haven’t decided.”

_ Austin? Fuck, yes. Finally, some fucking weed. _ All worries of ditching Ezekiel were already shoved out of my mind as I carefully lowered Gray’s police scanner into the Pelican. “Gonna be a lot of vampires in Corpus, you know.  They love hurricane country, makes high body counts easier to hide. Might be best to lay low and head to Austin.”

A low growl escaped Gray’s throat, and I wondered if he was on to my ulterior motives. “Yeah. Probably.” Austin was clearly not high up on his list of places he wanted to go. 

“Listen, though,” I said, laying protective foam sheets over the scanner and deciding that I had to at least put up a token resistance Just in case Ezekiel asked why the hell I took off after promising I’d wait for him. “I think Zeke was telling the truth. He said that as far as he knew, Willis and I were still in touch, and that that was the only reason he knew where to find me. When I said that wasn’t the case, that really caught him off guard. I don’t think he had any idea that Willis was lying.”

Gray sighed deeply, and I could tell he was mentally counting to ten to keep from snapping. “You said Willis was good at faking it. Vampires react a lot faster than we do. They--”

“They do, but Zeke is...I don’t know. He’s more real. I trust him a lot more than I did Willis.”

“He’s still a vampire.” Gray tossed me a steel lockbox. “Put that in there, that’s the rest of our cash. You know that if even a single vampire is left alive, there can be more vampires. Just one can undo everything we’ve done.”

“I know. But--”

“But nothing. Finish packing and get that out in the truck. I want to be out of here in fifteen minutes.”

“Uh huh.” I put the last of the cables in the Pelican, winding them carefully into coils and stacking them neatly, before closing the lid and snapping it shut. Gray stepped around me and moved it to the floor for me, and I pulled up the handle and wheeled it out, leaving him behind to finish packing the guns.

There was something just too small about Dallas, I thought, walking towards the truck. It seemed to crop up out of nowhere in the flat expanse of Texas, stopping immediately at the city edge, instead of fading out gently into suburbs. Probably why we didn’t find too many vampires out here. Either that or it just attracted too many rich bastards, the kind of rich bitch elites whose disappearance would  _ absolutely  _ be noticed. Corpus and Austin both were going to have a fair amount of vampires, I realized grimly. Between the homeless and the undocumented immigrants...it was gonna be be Los Angeles all over again.  _ Great. _

I couldn’t lie to myself, the last six months had been sort of nice. Gray had even started to loosen up.

_ “Got you something today,” he said, kicking off his boots as he stepped in the dingy hotel room. _

_ “Yeah?” I bounded up to him, looking around expectantly for the hot-pink bulletproof vest he’d promised me, or the butterfly knife I’d been eyeing last time we were at the military surplus. Instead, he held out his hand, holding a beanie baby by the paw. “Oh,” I said, surprised. _

_ “It’s, uh…” _

_ “No, yeah, I know what it is,” I said, taking the bear and turning it over. It was newer than the one I’d had, but it still had signs of age--some of the fur was rubbed threadbare, one of the feet was ripped. But it was the same bear my mother had given me when I first went home to visit Gray and cried my eyes out, saying I didn’t want to go, I wanted to stay in Arizona. “Where did you find it?” _

_ Gray shifted uncomfortably. “Goodwill. Was looking for a new belt.” _

_ “Ah.” _

I sat now with the bear seated next to me on the old Chevy’s front seat, waiting for Gray, my face rested glumly in my hands. I couldn’t help but notice that his hair had faded faster than it probably should have. It had never been particularly grey, mostly black, but now...the stress was clearly getting to him, which certainly wasn’t improving his mood. How much longer could he keep this up?

He slid in the driver’s seat, looking across at me, turning the engine over. “You set?”

“Think so.”

“Alright. We’ll take the 35 down, Austin’s only three hours or so from here, so I’ll drive the whole way. You should sleep, I’ll let you know when we get close and I need you to find us a new place to stay.”

I tried to mask my excitement. “We’re going to Austin?”

Gray tapped the gas, testing the engine, and looked around quickly, as if Willis or Ezekiel were standing around, just waiting to take off after us on foot. “You’re probably right about Corpus, and I’m not in the mood to deal with entire covens. I want to stick to one at a time for right now.”

“Speaking of covens, though,” I said slowly, trying to ease him into the subject of Willis and Ezekiel again. “I think we need to be realistic about Willis’s coven. I think Willis and Ezekiel are just going to track us down again, and--”

“I know they are,” Gray said, backing the truck up and shifting into drive with enough force that I worried the shifter might break. “But we know they’re after us this time. And we’re not going to let them get the drop on us again.”

I thought briefly back to the note I’d left Ezekiel, the paper I’d used to slice open my own finger and squeeze several drops of blood onto before folding it and staking it to the ground under a bush. “Yeah,” I said, squeezing my finger tightly.  _ Did I do the right thing? _


	3. Bicycles and Tacos and Weed

_ Lot of fuckin’ bicycles in Austin, that’s for damn sure,  _ I thought bitterly, watching a guy on what was probably a very expensive bicycle race down the sidewalk.  _ All these bikes, and no damn weed. Figures.  _ How was it that we’d been in Austin for three weeks now, and I hadn’t been able to find a single weed man, in the live music capital of the world? Admittedly, I had partially expected Willie Nelson himself to appear before me like the patron saint of marijuana as soon as we’d crossed the city line, but that was just as ridiculous an expectation as not being able to find anything  _ anywhere. _

I handed a fistful of ones to the woman at the taco truck as she handed me a bag that smelled strongly of cilantro and beef. “Keep the change.  _ Gracias _ ,” I said, taking the paper bag and pulling my hood up, going back to my own bicycle.  _ “Blend in,”  _ Gray had said.  _ “You should really get a bike if you’re gonna be walking back and forth to that taco truck every morning.” _

_ You know what vampires call cyclists? Meals on wheels, _ I thought to myself, as I did every time I loaded up my bag of breakfast tacos in the milk crate strapped to the back of my bike and straddled it with as much grace and hesitation as if I were climbing onto an angry horse.

_ No fuckin’ weed, no Zeke, and now a bicycle. Austin fuckin’ blows, man. _

I wasn't sure what to make of Ezekiel's absence. I'd tried to make my note as neutral as possible on the very real chance that Willis found it. How would he take it if he found out Ezekiel and I had not only been in touch, but that I was telling him how and where he could find me? Probably not well, if the whole thing about him stalking me was true.  _ Probably should have waited until Willis just told him where I was. No doubt he would have eventually.  _ No, that wouldn’t have worked either, because then  _ Ezekiel  _ would be pissed with me, on top of Willis, and then I’d have two severely pissed off vampires on my ass, and that information would probably give Gray a heart attack. And then I’d be alone, facing down a seriously deadly world entirely on my own.

Sucked to admit I’d never last.

I righted my bike and headed back towards 183, out of the city, hoping that Gray could be bought with breakfast tacos. He’d been in a shitty mood ever since we’d gotten to Austin, but the constant stream of Tex-Mex food seemed to be softening him up a bit. I supposed it reminded him of his childhood. Assuming he even remembered the time he lived in Texas, not that I really knew anything about his childhood. I wasn’t even sure when he and Grampa had left, all I knew was that, somewhere along the line, Gray had been born in Texas, and then some time after that, Grampa uprooted him and dragged him to Arizona. From what I knew, he’d been in the military before he became a cop, but he didn’t seem to want to talk about it, and the only thing my mom really ever said about him was that he was a stuck-up cocksucker.

I sighed, trying to shove down the bitter feelings I felt towards her.  _ You had to go and die, huh? Couldn’t have at least waited until I was on my own? Never would have had to go live with Gray. Never would have met Willis. Never would have dragged Gray into all this shit and gotten him killed too… _

I shook my head. Couldn’t think like that. Had to focus on the now. Right now, Gray and I were both alive and well. We’d killed more than a few vampires. A  _ lot  _ of vampires. How many humans could say that?

_ Hopefully a lot, _ I thought, my heart aching. I had to be honest with myself, Ezekiel had struck a chord in me. I hadn’t realized how  _ lonely  _ I was. Two years ago I probably would have told him and the horse he rode in on to fuck off. But now, the only company I’d had since I left Willis had been my dad. My ears burned as I thought of how loud and messily I’d jacked off to those pictures of that bitch humping the cruiser. How far had I fallen that  _ that  _ turned me on? I seriously needed some friends, before I found myself actually fucking a vampire out of desperation.

“On your left,” I heard behind me, and I groaned, pulling off to the right. Another one of these goddamn cyclists, in their stupid little shorts and--

“ _ Zeke?!” _ I gasped, nearly falling off my bike as I recognized the guy pulling up next to me. 

“You dig the spandex?” he asked, and I narrowed my eyes at him. I wasn’t sure I could take him seriously in the skintight red and white jersey advertising the nearby racetrack that clung to every muscle in his torso, or the black shorts that left nothing to the imagination. 

“You...aren’t sparkling,” I said, bewildered and looking anywhere but his shorts.

Ezekiel smirked. “Foundation. I’m wearing makeup. Makeup and spandex, can you believe it?”

I pulled up ahead of him, but keeping up with me was no effort for him. “I’m wet as fuck right now.” I was having a hard time deciding which made him look more like a little bitch, the spandex or the stupid blond man bun he was--thankfully--hiding under his helmet.

“I’m just getting warmed up. Wait until you see what I’ve got in my backpack.”

“Better be fuckin’ weed.”

“And here I thought Willis was the only one who could read minds.”

I braked, hard, leaving Ezekiel to speed ahead of me. “Are you serious?”

Typical of this asshole--really any vampire, honestly--to ride his front brakes, popping his back tire up in the air and rotating his entire bike on his front wheel to turn and face me. “Serious as a heart attack, compadre.” His back wheel dropped to the ground, bouncing once, and he stuck a foot out to prop himself up. “As long as you have something for me. All I ask is for your time.”

“Ugh, sibling shit again?” I said, jumping off my bike and flipping down the kickstand. “Fine, whatever. Let me see what you’ve got and I’ll decide how much time you get.”

“I think you’re gonna find you’ve got more than enough time for me,” Ezekiel said, slinging his backpack off his shoulder and tossing it to me. He waited for me to unzip it, unable to disguise his smug look behind his wraparound sunglasses. Or maybe the smug look came with the wraparounds, I didn’t know. It was hard to tell with cyclists.

_ Holy fuck.  _ I quickly zipped it back up before anyone saw. To say there was a lot of weed in his backpack was an understatement. This was the sort of shit you saw in lame movies where the cops bust the bad guys for trafficking drugs. Short of an entire friggin’ eighteen wheeler full of marijuana, this was probably the most I’d ever seen in one place in my life. “Zeke,” I said, looking around to see if anyone’s interest had been piqued. “Where did you get this?”

He shrugged. “Stole it.”

“You did not.”

“Not in Austin, relax. Stole it from a guy in Dallas.”

“You  _ what? _ ” 

Ezekiel threw his head back, laughing like a maniac, and I glanced down at the backpack.  _ I’m gonna die for a backpack full of weed. Great. _ “You really think he’s gonna find me? Come on. I was in Dallas for like, two days. As far as anyone’s gonna know, that shit just vanished off the face of the earth.”

“You understand exactly what the street value of this is, right?” I slung the bag over my shoulder.

“Worth one bro listening to another bro’s problems?” he ventured, and I sighed. 

“Yeah. I suppose. I have to go bring breakfast to Gray first though, and he wants to do some shooting this afternoon, try out one of the guns he built.” I snuggled the backpack tighter up to my back. It was way too light to be as full as it was. I wondered if it was obvious what it was full of.  _ Yeah, probably not. I don’t think the cops are gonna see me and their first thought is gonna be ‘oh, there goes that white chick with her breakfast tacos, like always, and, how quaint, she’s got a backpack full of weed today’. _ “I’ll get out of it, though. Give me an hour or two, and I’ll meet you back out here, okay? Corner of Riverside and Montopolis. Be there or be square.”

“Are you actually gonna be there this time, or am I gonna have to track you down halfway across Texas again?”

“I left you a note, quit your bitching.”

Ezekiel scowled, and then looked nervously up the road. “Whatever. I’ll be there. But, uh…” He looked down at his bike, and then his outfit.

“What, afraid to get robbed, gringo?”

He frowned. “No. I was thinking more that I think I stick out a little bit, don’t you think?”

“You’re the one who decided to disguise yourself as a bike weenie.”

His brows came together. “Hey now. This is no disguise. I happen to love cycling.”

I put my foot back up on the pedal. “Go to Bastrop and back, then, nerd. I’ll see you later.”

“Bastrop?” I heard him say indignantly as I rode away. “I can do a lot better than fuckin’ Bastrop…”

 

* * *

 

Gray accepted the white paper bag full of breakfast tacos without a word, and I flopped down on the broken down couch across from him with my own bag. If it hadn’t been for the fact that we were living in a literal a homeless camp, I could almost have seen myself wanting to stay in Austin full-time. Yeah, our furniture was broken down crap we’d gotten from Craigslist and Facebook swap and sell groups, we didn’t have a roof, just an assortment of tarps that Gray had tied between the trees--but I really did have to admit, Gray knew what he was doing. 

_ He’s ex-military, idiot, of course he knows what he’s doing. He never would have lived this long otherwise. _

I fished out a taco, still warm and wrapped in foil, watching Gray pick slowly at his while he sat on the tailgate of the truck and tinkered with the radios. He was so fucking weird about food, but it was the one thing I never dared call him out on. He was obviously self-conscious about it...but why shouldn’t he be? Dude ate like a friggin’ bird.

“Whatcha thinking about?” I asked, deliberately trying to lighten the mood.  _ Jesus, _ I thought as he looked up at me. How was it possible for someone’s default expression to look  _ that  _ ornery? 

“I think I need to go into town later and get some transistors. There’s an antiques dealer on 71, I could probably get some old electronics--”

“Dad. Come on. Loosen up.” I kicked my feet up on the arm of the couch, and somehow his expression managed to get even more annoyed. “What? I--oh, come on, are you kidding? This couch is shit, all our furniture is shit, what does it  _ matter _ ?”

“You want it to fall apart even faster than it already is?”

“Oh my  _ Go-o-o-o-d, _ ” I moaned, swinging my feet onto the ground. “This is exactly what I’m talking about. You gotta relax. The stress is gonna kill you.”

“ _ You’re  _ going to kill me,” he said, and I smirked, making finger guns at him.

“Pew pew.”

His face slackened a bit, and he stood up, stretching until the joints in his back cracked. “Alright. What do you want?” he asked, pushing the radio back under the truck cap and picking up his taco bag so he could close the tailgate.

I stretched my arms over my head. “I mean, long term, or…?”

“Be realistic.”

I crumpled up the foil my first taco had come wrapped in and tossed it in the bin situated at the end of the couch. “Can we take a break from the vampire thing for just a bit?”

Gray chuckled dryly, but he wasn’t amused. “Funny, Davy. I said be realistic.”

“No, no, I mean just for today, maybe.” I wondered briefly of the sort of trouble my father could get in if I left him alone for a few hours. It was slightly troubling that he was so dangerous I couldn’t even dare to leave him alone for any amount of time, that the idea of him getting bored and deliberately going out to find someone to get in a brawl with or kill with his bare hands was too real of a concern. I could practically see a tiny version of me in fishnets and tiny devil horns appearing on my shoulder, yelling “ _ do it! Do it!” _ Strictly out of curiosity, of course. But, really, how easy  _ would _ it be for Gray to kill someone whose reaction time wasn’t measured in fractions of seconds? “ _ Frighteningly so,” _ the miniature slut on my shoulder said, rubbing her hands together. 

I ignored her and stood up, moving to hug him. If there was anything that got him out of my hair for extended periods of time, it was physically affection. “I know we were gonna go practice shooting, but, I dunno, I just think…” I reached up, running a hand through his starkly grey undercut. “I think you need a break. At least for a bit. Some alone time, maybe.”

“Alone?” He was momentarily distressed--I supposed this meant he had been hoping for some father-daughter bonding.  _ Gonna have to lay it on a bit thicker, then. _

“I mean,” I said, wrapping my arms gently around his waist, laying my head on his chest. “I can...uh…” I was taken aback at how suddenly it occurred to me that I  _ wanted  _ to hug him. I brought my arms tighter around him, listening to his heartbeat under my ear, and feeling so much safer, so much more at home than I’d ever felt, even with my mom. 

Gray cleared his throat once. “Are you…” He swallowed. “Are you okay?” He put a hand on the top of my head, quickly tucking my hair behind my ear with his thumb, hesitantly, almost unsure of the action.

“I’m fine.” I hugged tighter, and, realizing that he wasn’t going to hug me back, I stepped away. “I just was gonna say, I--”

“Yeah, I think some alone time might be good for me. I’ll take my time fixing the radios, call it a day when I’m done. The harpoon needs a little bit more work before we test it out, anyway. I, uh…” He ran a hand through his hair, fixing where I’d pulled it out of place. “I guess I forget that you need time to be a kid sometimes. Just...please, keep in touch with me.”

“I will. Stay safe while I’m gone, yeah?” I almost choked, overwhelmed by how much I meant it. The idea of anything happening to him, of coming home to find that anything at all had happened to him, gripped me like a punch to the gut. 

“Yeah. You too, Davygirl.”

I nodded once, putting the remainder of my breakfast in my bike basket and climbing aboard my bike. 

There were two trails out of our camp; a longer one that went through the field and around the woods we lived in, accessible only by truck--according to Gray, anyway, something about rattlesnakes--and a shorter bike path that cut directly through the woods to 183. There had been signs of life here when we’d first found the spot--trash, used needles, remains of old homeless camps--but everything that couldn’t be salvaged for our own camp, Gray had meticulously cleaned and removed, commandeering the dumpster behind the lone gas station just up the road from where the truck trail let out. Which meant that hiding my backpack full of weed was harder than hiding a backpack full of weed had any right to be. 

“What happened to the old days, where I could just hollow out a book and tell mom it was my diary,” I grumbled, flipping down my kickstand and grabbing the last of my tacos. The pecan tree I’d hung my backpack in was off the trail a ways, so I left my bike behind and trekked out to it, still grumbling the whole way. “Friggin’ Gray doesn’t know how to just  _ relax, _ I gotta hide all my shit from him...ugh…”

Back at the camp, I heard Gray’s truck start, and I sighed in relief when my backpack was safely back in my hands. “Zeke, you better have gotten the good shit.” 

My face fell when I unzipped the backpack, getting a proper look at what he’d gotten. He had not, in fact, gotten the good shit. 

“Zeke, are you  _ fucking kidding _ ?!” I snapped, hauling out what was more or less an entire marijuana plant. All told I might have had four or five ounces,  _ after  _ I finished trimming and cleaning. “You literally just grabbed a fucking plant, dude, are you  _ kidding?” _ I stuffed it back into the bag, scowling as stems broke and buds scattered, falling to the bottom of the bag. “Oh, you aren’t getting  _ any  _ time from me, except the time it takes me to ream your fucking sparkly ass out with a road flare. God  _ dammit _ !” I zipped the bag back up and tossed it back up in the tree, storming back to my bike. “Unbelievable,” I muttered, kicking the kickstand up. “It’s disrespectful, is what it is,” I continued as I rode back out to the road, waiting patiently for an eighteen wheeler to pass before I pulled out onto the shoulder. 

Ezekiel was waiting for me when I came tearing down Riverside forty-five minutes later, my rickety caliper brakes screeching when I stopped inches from him. In a perfect world, I’d have crashed into him, but in reality, the only thing that was going to do was put me in the hospital. Instead, I settled to just glare at him, sweating like a hog, while I made a show of putting my kickstand down and taking out the remainder of my tacos, which were stone cold now.  _ Great. _

“Something wrong?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow. He was leaning his weight against the frame of his bike, resting one arm lightly on the handlebars, and I scowled. Stupid thing didn’t even have a kickstand, but naturally that was no problem for a vampire. He could probably balance it on two wheels and just leave it there. 

“How was Bastrop, you prick?”

“Light workout. Been thinking about getting a shitter bike, something with a little more resistance, you know, give me a challenge, I--”

“Was that backpack supposed to be a joke?” I said, poking him hard in the chest. I couldn’t reasonably put into words exactly how little I cared about his bike.

He stopped, glancing down at where I’d poked him, and when he looked back up his brow was creased in confusion. “What? What was wrong with it? I got what I could, was it not the right strain or something? It’s not supposed to have flowered first or something, is it?”

I stopped short, and my temper evaporated. “Do you…” I slapped a hand to my forehead. “Jesus. You don’t know a damn thing about weed, do you?”

Ezekiel looked at me like I was a complete idiot, which, in that moment, I felt it probably could have been true. He leaned in, his eyes half-narrowed. “Do you know a lot of vampires that smoke?”

I threw my head back, exasperated. “Yeah, I guess not.” I grudgingly had to admit that, at least, what I had was better than nothing, right? That morning, I’d had a great big nothing burger. Now I at least had a few ounces. I could ration that out until Ezekiel brought me more. Which, if he wanted my help, he would. I let my breath out between my teeth, mentally counting to ten. When I was finished, I gestured to Ezekiel, and pointed down the road, towards a construction yard where a new apartment complex was going up. “Come on. We’ll talk down there.”

“I thought the point of meeting on Riverside was so that we could talk out in the open without worrying who heard?” Ezekiel protested, but mounted his bike anyway. 

“We can, I just don’t want that creepy old lady that hangs around this gas station asking me how well I eat pussy again.” I shuddered.  _ Probably not as good as you, you toothless old loon.  _ “Come on.”

 

* * * 

 

“Alright, so what’s the issue?” I let my bike drop on the grass, sprawling out under a tree, relaxing in the shade of it and finally unwrapping my taco. “Something about your siblings?”

Ezekiel pointed at my bike. “It’s not good for it to do that, you know. You can damage your derailleur.”

“I don’t really care,” I said, my mouth full and spraying bits of egg and cheese down my front.

“Whatever, but you will when your chain falls off while you’re going twenty miles an hour down the 183,” he said mockingly. 

“Zeke. Come on. Focus. I don’t have all day. Gray worries.” I snapped my fingers a few times.

“Alright.” Ezekiel leaned his bike against the tree, and then swept himself down into a lotus position. “I need you to help me kill them. And you need me to help you get around their powers. I’ll get you more weed upfront, and then afterwards we’ll split the remains of the Cullen fortune 70/30, 70 for you and your dad, 30 for me. And then we go our separate ways, and I want immunity from you. No tracking me down and killing me a year from now.”

I blanched. “Well. Uh. That certainly was short and to the point, so thanks for that.” But despite having done exactly what I asked, I still could feel my stomach knotting up with anxiety. Kill his siblings? Arianna and Thomas would be the easiest, morally, but the most difficult in terms of logistics. I didn’t even dare dwell on it for too long--thinking about it too much could trigger a vision in Arianna, which would either burrow her deeper into hiding from Gray and I, or turn her on us entirely, and there was nothing that Gray and I wanted to deal with less than a severely pissed off vampire that could see the future.

Then there was Willis. He was a whole different story. Did I want to see him dead? I had been content to hope that he knew what I’d been up to and was smart enough to keep his distance. Although, that contract was apparently null and void. And obviously I knew that Gray would have given his right arm to see him burn, but that really didn’t have anything to do with the fact that Willis was a vampire. 

And then, last of all, there was Roxana. Ezekiel’s mate. He couldn’t possibly mean her, too, could he…? The grim look on his face told me that, yes, he could mean her too. She wasn’t gifted like the other three, but I could think of at least two reasons he wouldn’t be able to pull the trigger on her.

“I don’t understand. Why do you want them dead?” 

“Uh…” Ezekiel picked at a speck of lint on his shorts.

_ What, all of a sudden you’ve got cold feet? You were all business a minute ago, spit it out! _

“After the Volturi...things went bad. They’re…” He looked like he was biting back tears, and I frowned. I was unmoved. “They’re murdering people, Davy. They’re not eating animals anymore.”

Briefly, I met his gaze, but quickly looked back down at the ground, embarrassed. As soon as he’d said that his siblings were eating people again, I couldn’t help but wonder. But his eyes were the dull, washed out pink-ish grey they’d always been, faded from the bright red that indicated a diet of human blood. “So, what happened? Just lost faith in everything because your parents are dead?”

Ezekiel shoved his hands in the back pockets of his jersey. “Pretty much, actually. I mean...you know Thomas was already halfway there.”

I did know. He was the reason why I only very rarely went over to the Cullen house. The way he looked at me was more than little bit uncomfortable. 

“The only reason he didn’t was because Arianna wanted so badly to be a part of our coven, so he ate animals to make nice. Didn’t stop him from complaining about it at every chance he got, though. But with our parents gone, he didn’t see any reason to stick to the diet, and once he went back, Arianna went right with him.

“Roxana…” he choked. “It was hard for her. She’s afraid. She tried to get me to go with her. She said that was the reason the Volturi did what they did, that they’ve been looking for a reason to come down on us for years, that the animal blood thing disgusts them. ‘It’s the natural order of things’, she said. ‘Just give in’. But...I can’t do it.”

Against my better judgement, I reached out to him, taking his hand in mine. “I’m…” I started, but the words wouldn’t come as easily as they would when I was being sarcastic.  _ Gray really is starting to rub off on me, huh? _ “You’re a lot stronger than I give you credit for.”

“I suppose if that was the case I wouldn’t need you to do my dirty work for me.”

“You’re asking me to kill your mate, Zeke.”

“And yours.”

“It’s different,” I said, but I wasn’t sure it was. “We’re not together anymore. I’ve had two and a half years to get over him. And…” My voice soured. “Even if  _ I  _ wasn’t able to kill him, Gray would be more than happy to do the job.”

Ezekiel snorted. “So when do I get to meet this guy?”

I threw my head back and laughed. “Yeah, alright.”

“I’m serious.”

“You don’t want to meet my dad.”

“You guys are a team, right? I don’t want to do this whole running back and forth on the outskirts thing while you guys just work things out between yourselves. I want to be a part of this.” Ezekiel stood up. “Come on, Davy, I already know you guys are camped out nearby. It’d be way too easy to track you down myself, and do you really want me to just show up, unannounced, and tell your dad that you and I have been talking? You really think he’s ever gonna trust you again after something like that?”

“Wow,” I said, standing up and picking up my bike. “Blackmail. I didn’t know you were capable of something quite so underhanded.”

He shrugged. “Comes with the territory, love.”

“Okay, definitely don’t call me that. And you’re gonna need something else to sweeten the deal for Gray, he’s not the kind of guy who can be bought with drugs.” I straddled my bike and pointed down the way we came. “We’re headed that way. Just stay behind me.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it obvious that I live in Austin and am the worst kind of cyclist? Is it even more obvious that Zeke is wearing my cycling kit and riding my bike?


	4. Trust

Gray was spread out, face-down, on the couch when I got home. For a split second, things felt almost normal. A half-empty beer bottle rested on the ground, held up precariously by his fingertips loosely wrapped around the neck. His snoring wasn’t as bad as it used to be, I suspected a result of the fact that he wasn’t sleeping as heavily as he used to. Always on a hair trigger. I sighed, disappointed that I had to wake him up, but stepped closer to him and lightly put my hand on his shoulder. “Gray?”

He shot up, immediately dislodging the bottle and spilling warm beer all over the ground. I leapt back, out of his range, and raised my hands up in front of me, palms outward. “Hey, hey, dad, careful, it’s just me,” I said evenly. “Just me. It’s alright.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“So why’d you wake me up?” He looked around, tiredly scrubbing a hand over his face and squinting in the brightness. 

I fidgeted with the hem of my shirt, searching for the right words. “Nothing’s  _ wrong,  _ but...this is kinda heavy. I need you to stay calm.”

“What. Happened?” Gray was wide awake now, on the edge of his seat, grinding out each word from between clenched teeth. Not calm at all. The one thing I asked of him. Typical.

“We’ve been propositioned.”

Gray’s shoulders dropped a bit, and he sat up a bit straighter. “What? By who?”

“Ezekiel Cullen wants our help to kill his siblings. He said that he’ll help us get around their powers if we help him kill them. Their parents are already dead, the Volturi took care of them, so we only have--”

“Absolutely not.”

I crossed my arms, a habit I had definitely picked up from him, which irritated me even further. “Come  _ on, _ Gray, you’re being ridiculous. He wants to help us. Having a vampire on our side could be--”

“Could be the exact thing that gets us both killed. It’s not happening, Davy. End of discussion.” He got up and went to his truck, deliberately looking away from me. “I’m nipping this in the bud now, before you lead him here and--”

“And massacre your entire vampire hunting camp?” Ezekiel said suddenly, dropping from the trees only a few feet away from Gray, whose eyes went wide and he clutched at his chest for only a moment; he recovered in less than a second and reached for the road flare in his boot, lunging at Ezekiel. 

“I’ve already seen the road flare trick,” Ezekiel said, sidestepping Gray easily. He caught Gray’s wrist and whipped him around, pinning it behind his back in one hand and using the other arm to pull Gray into a headlock.

“Fuck,” I whispered, feeling my stomach drop to my knees.  _ Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. This isn’t what we agreed on. _ “Zeke, what are you doing?!”

“Don’t you  _ dare  _ hurt her, I swear to God--” Gray snarled, thrashing at Ezekiel’s grip. “Davy--!”

“Gray, is it?” Ezekiel said, cutting Gray off and ruffling his hair. “I’ve heard a lot about you. Heard you’ve got a bit of a temper.”

“Let me go and you’ll find out,” Gray said, jerking wildly against Ezekiel. 

“We’ll see.” Ezekiel looked to me, and I paled. 

“You led him right to us, didn’t you?” Gray said, and the betrayal in his voice was clear.

“I’m sorry, dad, I didn’t know--”

Ezekiel raised an eyebrow at me. “You’re taking this all wrong, Davy. Come on, you think I’m here to kill you? We had a deal, remember? Partners, right, huh?”

“You hurt my dad and it’s over,” I hissed. I couldn’t face this world alone. Not without Gray. It was either me and him...or nothing at all. I would  _ not  _ be held hostage by the likes of a vampire.

“What? No! I would never!” Ezekiel tightened his grip on Gray, making him choke and struggle harder. “I’m just dicking around with you, man.” He loosened his grip. “It is Gray, right? Nice to meet you, man, I’m a big fan of your work. I’d shake your hand, but, uh, you know.”

“The feeling is  _ not. mutual _ ,” Gray said, glaring at me.

Ezekiel tousled Gray’s hair again, making it stick up in every direction, and I could just  _ feel  _ the anger radiating off him.  _ Even if you were able to strike a deal with him, I’m pretty sure he’s gonna kill you on principle now, pal.  _ “Gray. Buddy. Grayson. I’ve got a problem and I hear you’re the man who solves problems like mine. You’re the one they go to, that’s what I hear.”

“I don’t know who you’ve been talking to, because nobody comes to me, and I don’t solve problems.”

I watched Ezekiel carefully as he surveyed the camp, his eyes coming to rest on Gray’s police badge balanced carefully on top of the broken CRT television that Gray had promised I could keep lizards in if I could catch any.  _ Oh, man, do  _ not  _ ask him about that, Zeke, you are barking up the wrong tree-- _

But Ezekiel had managed to put two and two together faster than I ever would have. “You miss the cop thing, huh? I can help you out. You can be the small town cop again, no vampires, no running.”

“No, you can’t. Unless you want to go and kill every fucking vampire out there for me--”

“You’re right, I can’t do that. But neither can you, and I can get you immunity. You can hang up the road flare and call it a day, leave it to someone...maybe a bit younger than you, someone who actually wants to do this, and I’ll get you immunity from the Volturi. Full protection order, no vampires in or around any town of your choosing. With me as your permanent border protection.”

The air around the three of us grew tense, and I suddenly realized I was holding my breath. But I could  _ picture  _ it: a ranch down in Alice or Bishop, maybe somewhere down in the valley, never seeing another vampire again, a security blanket in the form of Ezekiel that never had to sleep, never had to take a break, a blanket under which I could finally get a real night’s sleep, that didn’t require one eye open…

“No.” Gray’s voice was firm.

The picture was shattered almost as soon as it was formed, leaving me aching with desperation.  _ Four vampires! We only have to kill four vampires and then we could be done with this forever! Why--?! _

Ezekiel looked just as confused as I was. He met my gaze, wordlessly asking where he went wrong. I had no answer for him--I thought Gray would be even more excited to give up killing vampires than me.

“You just herd the vampires out and make sure they don’t come back, but where do they go? They’re still out there, killing and eating. I’m not giving this up, kid. Not until either I’m dead...or they are.” Gray spoke with such conviction and authority in his voice, that Ezekiel let him go and stepped back. “I want you gone. Now.” He turned and jabbed a finger at me. “And you? House arrest. Until I can trust you again.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong, dad, please, that’s not fair--”

“ _ I said what I said, Davy!” _ Gray roared, and I cowered. “The next time I see you,” he said, rounding on Ezekiel. “I will kill you. And that’s a promise. Get out of my camp. And away from my daughter.  _ Now! _ ” 

Ezekiel looked from me to Gray, and seemed to realize that he was serious. “Alright. Alright, I’m leaving. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause any problems. I just thought--”

“You can take your ‘just thought’ and shove it up your ass.  _ Get out of my camp! _ ” 

“I’m going, I’m going, geez. See you ‘round, then, Davy,” Ezekiel said, his mouth twisting downward into a frown as he turned on his heel and sulked off towards the truck trail. We both watched him leave until he’d disappeared from view, and Gray turned to face me.

“How could you bring him here?” he said. His voice was almost a growl, and I winced. This wasn’t how I expected things to play out at all. “Now we have to move. Again. I just...I can’t keep doing this, Davy, I…”

“I  _ know _ you can’t,” I said, my lip trembling.  _ Fuck. Don’t do this now. Don’t cry. For fuck’s sake, please don’t cry. _ But my eyes didn’t seem to be in the mood to listen to my higher brain function, because I could already feel hot fat tears leaking down my face. 

“Don’t you dare try that on me,” Gray said, but his temper was already starting to falter.

My ears felt hot. “I’m not trying anything,” I muttered, scrubbing the tears away with the sleeve of my hoodie. “I just…” My lip was trembling hard now, and I steeled my nerve to keep from bursting into tears. “I just…”  _ Oh, God. Come on. Just spit it out.  _ “I’m so fucking worried about you, okay?!” I said, losing my hold on the tears. “What am I gonna do if you die? Zeke makes you an offer to give all this up and you just want to go and be the big tough vampire slayer until it kills you. What about me, huh? What am I supposed to do when you’re gone?!”

“Do you really think he can actually come through on that promise? Even if he could--”

“You’ve done enough! We’ve killed...I don’t know,  _ so many  _ vampires. These things live forever--that’s one forever each for every single one of these bastards that people aren’t getting eaten once a week or even more often. That is literally an  _ infinite number of people we’ve saved. _ And you can’t accept that? That isn’t  _ good enough  _ for you?” I fell down on the couch, the sobs coming in ugly, wracking spasms now. “And even if it isn’t, which I already know it isn’t, Ezekiel offers you help, an indefinite partnership with someone a whole fuckin’ lot more durable than you, and you say  _ no _ ?” I wiped my chin and stared miserably at the ground. “Yeah, I know. What happened to the vampire slaying badass that took one on all by herself?” I spat mucus out on the ground and shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Gray deliberated for a minute before hesitantly sitting down opposite me, but still an arm’s length away. I figured the hug from earlier had been enough physical contact for him for a month. “I thought you liked the vampire killing thing.”

I wiped my nose and looked petulantly down at the ground. “I guess. I mean, I do, yeah. School sucks and my life was boring as shit before this. No offense,” I said, my gaze flicking upwards at Gray momentarily. “It’s just you that I worry about.”

“What, because I’m old?”

“Yeah, honestly.”

He was silent. “I wouldn’t mind the boring stuff now and again,” he said after a minute.

“Sometimes.”

“I wonder if, sometimes…” He rubbed his chin, scratching the back of his hand with the stubble he constantly forgot to shave off. “It’d be easier if we had a vampire on our side.”

I shrugged. “Might be.”

“Might make things too easy, really. Do we really want a vampire?”

“Probably not.” I sank deep into the ruined cushions, letting the couch swallow me whole. “You gotta clean it’s box once a day, and do you have any idea what those things eat?”

“Mostly deer,” I heard behind me, and Gray and I lurched forward; startled. Ezekiel was sitting directly behind us, leaning against a tree, his thumbs tucked into the waistband of his shorts. “Prey animals. Stuff like that. And I’m completely box trained, haven’t had an accident on the carpet yet.”

Gray tensed beside me. “I stand by what I said. I don’t want you in my camp.”

Ezekiel was crestfallen. “I thought we were making progress here. I wanted to be friends.”

“Don’t push it, Zeke,” I said, quickly rubbing all trace of the tears from my face--not that it mattered, he’d have seen it all anyway.

Ezekiel held up a red, white, and blue box, letting it dangle by the handle from one finger. “Got you something, Gray. A peace offering.”

“You’re really trying to buy him with Pabst?” I snorted. “ _ That’s  _ the best you can do?”

Gray held out one hand, beckoning for it, and Ezekiel smirked at me from behind his hand.

“Really is that easy, huh?” I said flatly, watching Gray set the box down on top of the TV and rip it open, taking one out for himself. He took a draught, ignoring me, and then set it down, walking briskly to the back of the truck. “I guess you know what he likes,” I said to Ezekiel, my voice low, but I couldn’t hide my shock. It wasn’t like Gray to budge so easily like that.

My shock immediately dissipated when he returned, slamming a gas can down so hard on the back of the couch that the contents sloshed around inside and the couch jolted. 

“Drink,” Gray demanded.

_ Oh. _

“Gasoline?” Ezekiel said warily.

“Diesel. Drink it. Now.”

Ezekiel looked at me, and I could only shoot him a look of complete confusion. “I think you offended him,” was all I could offer.

“I’ve been doing some observations of younger vampires. They get a little desperate sometimes, they want to recapture some of the things they did as humans. Like drinking. So far the best equivalent I’ve seen any of them find is diesel. Seems it fucks around with the venom in your system somehow, thins it the same way alcohol does to human blood, dilutes it, I don’t know. All I know is that it’s poisonous to you.” Gray yanked the cap off the can and turned it so that it was pointed at Ezekiel. “You want to prove to me that I can trust you? Prove that you trust me.” He shotgunned the last of his beer and tossed the can aside. “I’m not getting any younger. Either prove it, or leave.”

Struggle was written plainly on Ezekiel’s face as he picked up the gas can. “It won’t kill me?” He risked a sideways glance at me, but I had no answer. I’d never heard of a vampire drinking anything besides blood.

“You want to see your siblings dead or not, Ezekiel?” Gray said, cracking open another beer. “You either trust me or you don’t, I don’t have all day--”

Gritting his teeth, Ezekiel snatched the can in both hands and, with one final murderous stare at Gray, he tipped the contents back while I watched in amazement. 

_ Holy fuck, that’s gotta taste awful. _

Confirming my belief, he immediately coughed up what must have been half of it, sputtering and choking while Gray shook his head.

“Shit’s expensive, kid. Better keep it down.”

_ This has gotta be a new record for you, _ I thought, looking between the two of them as they stared each other down.  _ I don’t think anyone’s managed to hate you this quickly before. Keep shooting for the stars, dad. _

Ezekiel let out a long, irritated bellow before knocking back at least another half gallon of diesel, tipping the can up over his head, his throat working as he swallowed gulp after gulp. He let the near-empty can drop to the ground with a clatter when he was done, wiping his mouth and spitting on the ground once before looking to Gray for a response.

Gray assessed him for a moment, then extended a hand to me. “Step back, Davy. I’m finishing this.” He stepped around me, pulling a handgun from his belt and leveling it at Ezekiel.

“What?” Ezekiel held both hands up in front of him, palms up. “Hey, I did what you said, I--”

“Come on, how fucking stupid are you?” Gray tightened his finger around the trigger. “All that shit does is make you even more flammable. I could kill you with a  _ taser _ right now. You bastards fall for this shit  _ every single time. _ ”

“Davy, we had a deal,” Ezekiel whispered, pleading. 

I tried to step back around Gray, but he kept me firmly behind him. “This isn’t what we talked about!”

Gray raised an eyebrow, bringing his gaze down to me, but still keeping the gun trained on Ezekiel. “You know we can’t make exceptions.”

“Please, Gray, I didn’t ask for this. I just want to undo the damage my family has done the best I can,” Ezekiel said, his voice hoarse. “If you kill me--”

A toothy smirk spread over Gray’s face, and he let the gun drop. “Cut the shit, kid. I’m fucking with you.” He snickered; a harsh, dry sound that didn’t sound at all humorous. Laughing definitely wasn’t in his skill set. “Oh, you don’t like that fake out shit, huh?”

Frowning at me, Ezekiel put a hand over his heart; an entirely affected gesture, but probably done out of habit than anything else. He picked up the gas can and set it back on the couch, still fuming. 

“Quit your crying, I don’t put up with that shit. You hunt?” Gray said, holstering his gun and draining the remainder of his second beer. “I heard there’s game up around Pilot Knob. Mule deer, bighorners, something like that. You eat deer?”

“I said I mostly eat deer,” Ezekiel spat.

“Lose the attitude. Go catch me a deer, I’ll help you drain it. Think you can handle that?” Gray said, already working on his third. 

_ Out of season hunting? For shame, Officer Walsh. _

“Davy, you go into town and get me some charcoals, and then we’ll all meet back here and work out the details of this little alliance once we’ve all had something to eat. You two think you can handle  _ that  _ without going behind my back again?”

I pursed my lips. “And what are you gonna do?”

“I’m gonna sit here and try not to be pissed off at you two until you get back, fair enough?” Gray flopped down on the couch, and then twisted around to face Ezekiel. “Do you have any other clothes, or is that it?”

“Even if I didn’t, yours wouldn’t fit me, manlet.”

Gray’s eyes narrowed. “What did you call me?”

“He’s saying you’re short,” I said, trying to contain my laughter.

Gray rotated back to me. “You’re gonna turn on me? Just like that?”

“Kidding, dad. Relax.” I crossed the distance between us and wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling his face into my stomach. “You’ve been…” I fought through giggles to keep my voice even. “.. _.short _ with me all day.”

“Alright, get out of here. Both of you.” Gray shoved me away. “And I swear to God, if you bring home another vampire…”

“Wouldn’t dream of it. I’ll be back later.” I waved Ezekiel goodbye as I all but skipped from the camp to my bike, leaving the two of them to suffer in their tense silence.

 

* * *

 

As much as Gray liked to cook, I was never able to say to his face that, unfortunately, he wasn’t very good at it. Regardless, though, I still found myself going back for thirds of the white-tailed deer that Ezekiel had dragged back, despite the fact that it was pretty burnt. Ezekiel watched from across the camp in a folding lawn chair, dressed in head-to-toe hunter’s camouflage, a bandana loosely tied around his neck, earmuffs clamped around the crown of his head with the band held up by his bun. He watched me conspiratorially as I cut the worst of the burned bits off, drinking blood from an empty beer can, his front still stained with a fair amount of the stuff.

_ “It’s a good thing I  _ did _ have clothes, _ ” he’d complained as he hauled the deer out of his Jeep and over his shoulder, throwing his compound bow from the passenger seat to the back. “ _ If I’d stained my cycling kit? I’d have been  _ pissed.”

Meanwhile, Gray’s temper had settled considerably, although it probably had more to do with the fact that he’d downed nearly half the case of Pabst while Ezekiel and I were out. Now he sat on the couch, only standing now and again to go check the meat burning on the grill he and I had dug out of a dumpster a week or so prior. Compared with the rest of our furniture--the rug spread out in front of the couch, the scuffed nightstand the TV was balanced on top of, the two tents constructed out of tarps, mine full of old pillows and blankets, Gray’s starkly empty in contrast--I was almost a little embarrassed. The Cullens were used to a life of luxury, not this.

“So has Davy filled you in on anything or I do have to go through it all again?” Ezekiel sloshed the remains of his blood around the bottom of the can before setting it down on the ground. 

I tried to disguise my difficulty in cutting my food as irritation. “Well I  _ would  _ have if he hadn’t lost his shit.”

“I think I’m well within my rights to keep my guard up when my daughter comes home saying she’s made friends with one of the Cullen boys,” Gray said around a mouthful of deer, refusing to even look up from his plate.

“Is he always like this or does he mellow out when he gets to know you?” Ezekiel picked his can back up and used it to gesture at Gray before leaning back in his seat.

“He’s really more the kind of guy that grows on you after a while. I’m still working on it,” I said, and Gray bared his teeth at me before rolling his eyes and sinking back into the couch.

“If you two are done,” he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and setting his empty plate on the ground. “I’d like to know what it is you expect from me.”

With a sigh, Ezekiel knocked back the last of his blood and crumpled the can into a tight ball, rolling it back and forth between his palms. “Long story short? My siblings are out of control and need to be put down. I figure we start with Willis, only because he’s the only one that I have any idea how to find. I’ve got his scent, but I haven’t picked it up here in Austin yet. I--”

“Let me get one thing straight, bloodsucker,” Gray said, as if Ezekiel hadn’t even spoken. “We have rules here, alright?”

“Vamp killing code,” I said as dramatically as possible, popping on the ‘P’ and drawing out the ‘O’. “Basically means we don’t kill unless the vampire in question is a danger to both the human  _ and _ vampire world. Blatant blood consumption in public, displaying their strength or speed in such a way that attracts human attention,” I said, ticking off each one on my fingers as I tried to remember the exact wording Gray had used when he had originally written the code, while he did the closest he had to beaming with pride.

“Oh, I get it.” Ezekiel tossed the can ball into the trash with perfect accuracy. That was going to get annoying pretty quickly. “Trying to get in good with the Volturi?”

“Saves them the effort of having to leave Italy,” I said, shrugging. “We’re just doing their dirty work for them, and a hell of a lot better, I might add.”

My words seemed to have the opposite effect on Ezekiel that I’d expected; his upper lip curled in disgust, and I flinched back.  _ Oops. _

“Anyway,” I said, trying to clear the air. “We’re not trying to bring the Volturi down on us. I guess you know as well as anyone that they’re not really to be messed with.”

Gray’s interest was piqued, and I scowled at him.

“I just told you about this earlier today.”

His face remained blank.

“They…” I tried to wordlessly communicate to him that it was a touchy subject, looking frantically between him and Ezekiel, but it was very obviously not sinking in.

“They killed my parents,” Ezekiel said plainly, and I threw up my hands. “Willis broke the only law we have, he not only didn’t keep the secret, but he let a human get away to do exactly what you two are doing now. They  _ should  _ have killed Willis, but I guess it makes more sense to take out the head of a coven. Makes the rest of them bitter and fight among themselves. Why limit yourself, why kill one vampire when you can take out the whole coven with the same amount of effort?” He spat on the ground.

I stared at the place where he had spit. “You know an ant or a slug or something is gonna run up on that and turn into a vampire snail or something,” I said, transfixed by the idea. When I looked up, both Gray and Ezekiel were giving me a very blatantly dissatisfied look. 

“Whatever.” I pointed my fork at Ezekiel. “I’m gonna cut to the chase. We don’t kill unless the vampire becomes a problem.” I pointed at Gray. “From what he’s told me, they’re definitely violating code, and beside that, if there’s gonna be any vampires gunning for us, it’s gonna be the Cullens. Striking first is an act of self-defense, because if I know the Cullen siblings--and we do--” I indicated Ezekiel with a nod. “--they’re vindictive. They’re gonna come for us eventually for what happened with the Volturi, and Ezekiel can see them coming a lot sooner than you or I can. So we can either sit still and wait for them to come to us, or we can track them down and put an end to this before it starts. I don’t think I have to ask to know which you would prefer.”

Grumbling, Gray reluctantly muttered in agreement.

“Great. So we’re all on the same page.”

“I want the home field advantage. I want them in Austin,” Gray said suddenly. “Can you make that happen?”

Ezekiel deliberated, using his hands to weigh imaginary pros and cons. “Uuuh...I mean, well, sure, yeah. Maybe. I...yeah. I think so. Probably. You’d have to give me some time. I mean, Willis is probably on his way here anyway, so we just gotta wait for him, really. Ariana will be a little trickier, but if I can draw her in, I’ll get Thomas, too.”

“What about the fourth?”

“She won’t be a problem.”

“If you say so.” Gray stood up. “Alright. If we’re staying here, then I need to make some phone calls. Davy?”

I bounced in my seat, excited for whatever was coming next. Stealing cars? Testing guns? 

“Babysitting duty. You watch him until we’re ready to go.”

_ Babysitting?! Are you fucking kidding?! _

Ezekiel grinned, giving me two thumbs up. “So excited, pal.”

_ God-fucking-dammit. _


End file.
